Best to Keep Ten Commandments

I would like to thank Sarah Peper for her letter about gay marriage. It helps me focus my disagreement with her on this issue.

First, America was not founded on the basis of separation of church and state. That language is not in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. What is in the Constitution is the First Amendment. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .” The founders knew the Constitution could not work unless the people had moral discipline that comes from religion. Freedom of religion is the first right in the Bill of Rights.

Second, gay sex does not build the future. The future comes from men and women coming together and having children. The best way to do that for the well-being of the child is in a loving, committed, permanent and exclusive relationship. That is called marriage. It is the business of society because the future of society depends on it. Whatever your view of the morality of gay sex might be, it’s not marriage.

Third, the laws of any society are structured in terms of some kind of morality. What Ms. Peper presents is a common version of secularized morality. It is relativist (there is no absolute truth), individualist (the individual is the center of things), and voluntarist (what I choose constitutes what is good for me). To say that you may not hurt anyone else or limit their freedom has no foundation in this system. Some people want to hurt you and steal your things.